Accidental Unionist

I am unemployed. I have been for a few years now. Mostly by choice I should add. Live to work. Not, work to live. I have been a slave to the bong. Now I am a slave to the bottle.

I lost my business in 2012 when my partner of many years and I separated. I lost my self. I stopped loving my self. I did seek help though, and through medication and therapy. I found myself and began to love my self again.

I found I have an ability to connect with people of all ages. People look up to me. They like what I talk about and what I do. I volunteer you see. I grow an amazing community garden of tropical and sub tropical plants. It grows along a cliff and I will write more about it.

But I also need mental stimulation. So I work most of the time for the Australian Unemployed Workers Union. I used to work in a law firm. People saw the potential in me. It was only that when I saw my own potential that I decided to find a job that truly stimulates my mind. And at the same time, gives me great satisfaction.

I fight for the underclass. I fight with my fellow unionists. I fight the government and the private for profit job networks. Fighting to end poverty, to end attacks on the poorest and most vulnerable in society. Organizing people, creating unity among the unemployed. Teaching them their rights, how to stand up for themselves and standing up for them in person when required.

I was never in an industry that had an effective union. For the last few years, if you lived in Australia. You could not escape the bashing unionism has received through royal commissions and the media. All regarding corruption at the top of the unions. But you never hear about the good work that people do at grass roots levels.

Job security has disappeared in this country. We now have a casualised work force. We have imported labour in all industries. We have exactly what the right wing has been fighting for. A nation of landlords. Now that the youth of today will never own property, university and our technical colleges are being deregulated. So that the next generations of Australia will be forced to work, due to the mountain of debt they accumulate getting work.

To bargain collectively, that is the power we humans have. Working as a team, with a common goal. For only through the strength of unity can we achieve what an individual cannot.